Celebrating Troy and Mindy Jelinek who, after much strife, have reunited and are living together within the community.
Troy and Mindy Jelinek met in 2014 as clients at an outpatient treatment facility and spent the next eight years building a life together. Three years ago, they relapsed and lost almost everything – their homes, their jobs, and almost each other. “Worst of all,” Mindy says, “we lost the respect of our children.”
But God was not done with their story.
“There was a time when I just wanted out because I didn’t know the person in front of me anymore, and I’m sure he felt that too,” Mindy recalls. “But he never wavered, he loved me unconditionally.”
They were willing to do the hard thing. Despite the pain being apart would cause after suffering so much loss already, they knew healing would require time, distance, and faith in the Lord’s plan.
God met them in their surrender.
Troy and Mindy entered and graduated from separate treatment programs, choosing to become healthy themselves before trying to rebuild together. After completing treatment, Troy entered the FreedomWorks Discipleship Program and eventually joined the FreedomWorks team. Through serious health challenges and more than 100 hospital admissions over the past year, Mindy graduated from treatment and entered the FreedomWorks Recovery Community.
Though no longer under the same roof, they were finally rebuilding side by side. They wanted to be together again, but finding a path forward proved harder than expected. Housing options vanished, doors closed, and opportunities seemed to disappear.
They prayed. They waited. They remained faithful and trusted God’s timing. And after 2.5 years apart, the Lord made a way, they are reunited and living together again in our Recovery Community.
Troy joined the FreedomWorks team as an Associate Coordinator and has since grown into the role of Coordinator for our third-floor, Discipleship/ R&A Program – the very program he entered when he came to FreedomWorks years ago. He now pours into the same men whose road he once walked with compassion, integrity, and leadership. Mindy’s health is improving, and she is focusing on nurturing paths towards healing with her children. Together, they are rebuilding community, family, and looking forward to the future with hope.
Mindy describes the recovery community as special because of their shared faith, focus on sobriety, support for each other, and the shared understanding of both the pain of addiction and the courage it takes to rebuild. They both shared that whether someone gets a breakthrough on reuniting with their children or simply learns how to cook themselves a burger – each win or step forward is celebrated by the recovery community, together.
Together with their community, they learned that rebuilding isn’t about controlling the outcome – it’s about trusting the One who does.
They surrendered their timeline. They accepted uncertainty. They trusted in the Lord. In their waiting, their suffering, and their surrender, the Lord was quietly restoring what they had entrusted to Him.
Troy and Mindy’s story isn’t ultimately just about two people finding each other again after addiction and hardship. It’s about two people rebuilding their lives in Christ – and discovering that He was rebuilding them together all along.